Gluten-free Lemon-Elderflower Cake

My current obsession is elderflower syrup. Because of the quarantine, I decided to buy a bottle and indulge. I just love the flowery scent and its distinct flavor. It’s one of my favorite add-ins to mocktails and yes, some boozy libations. 

I intended to only buy a small bottle, say 16 ounces, but I could not find one. My only choice was a one liter bottle via Amazon – so it will be elderflower for weeks!

As a result, I’ve been researching on what other ways I can use elderflower syrup. In my readings, I was rather surprised that I can make a cake with it. The cake recipe that inspired me was for 16 servings. While this was a good baking project, I decided that something smaller, and maybe healthier, would be more appropriate.


I searched a bit more. With some tweaks, here's what I have. Let me know what you think.

Lemon-Elderflower Cake
Inspired by Lemon ElderFlower Cake from Liv For Cake
Based on Elderflower Lemon Cake from The Kitchn

Ingredients

For the cake

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup oats flour
• 2/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup low-fat Greek yogurt (I use 2%, will use 1 cup next time)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

For the syrup

• 1/4 cup of elderflower syrup
• 1 TBSP of lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)

For the yogurt topping

• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1 TBSP elderflower cordial or liqueur
• 1 TBSP granulated sugar (if using liqueur)

Directions

For the Lemon Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 9" x 9" baking pan and line with parchment.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and lemon zest until smooth. Add sugar and beat on med-high until pale and fluffy (approx 3 mins).
4. Reduce speed and add eggs one at a time fully incorporating after each addition. Add vanilla.
5. Alternate adding flour mixture with milk & lemon juice, beginning and ending with flour. Fully incorporating after each addition.
6. Spread batter evenly in the pan and smooth the tops.
7. Bake for approx. 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Place cakes on wire rack to cool for 10 minutes then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely

For the syrup

1. While the cake cools slightly, combine elderflower cordial or liqueur and lemon juice.
2. After 10 minutes of cooling, prick the still-warm cake all over with a skewer. Drizzle the elderflower and lemon syrup over the cake so that it seeps into the holes.

For the yogurt topping

1. Combine Greek yogurt and elderflower syrup. Beat until incorporated.
2. When cake is cool and lemon-elderflower mixture is all soaked in, slice the cake and top with a dollop of the elderflower yogurt.

Verdict

This is a very delightful light dessert. I think it needs a bit more moisture so I may increase the yogurt next time. I also modified the recipe to make it gluten-free using rice flour and oat flour. I generally do not use the gluten-free flour blends because I don't like the resulting texture. I figured the eggs can provide sufficient binding.

With the Greek yogurt topping and paired with a light tea, this is a perfect breakfast or an afternoon snack. It brings a much needed taste of summer.

Small-batch Peanut Butter Balls

It’s getting a bit warm, so it is time to transition from warm treats to cooler ones. Actually, inland in the San Francisco Bay Area, we can get record breaking heats. As a result, my nice hot spicy oatmeal breakfasts become cold ones with cooling spices. If I have them on hand, I’ll sprinkle tropical fruits in it, like mango and pineapple.

Since I do not want to turn on the big oven during the summer months, one of my staple sweet treats are protein balls – specifically peanut butter. These are no-bake snacks that I can keep in the fridge and pop in when I get hungry. These are almost cookie-like and satisfy that sweet craving.

The recipe below was probably inspired from many many recipes. I am just not sure from where since I had it written down in my notebook for so long. I figured its time to type it up.

Small-batch Peanut Butter Balls

Makes about 8

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp of Peanut Butter
• 1/3 cup of Rolled Oats
• 1 T + 1 tsp of nibs
• 1 T + 1 tsp of walnuts
• 2 tsp of honey (optional) 

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Roll into balls (I scoop them with either tablespoon or teaspoon measuring spoon).
3. Chill. Enjoy after 30 minutes.

Verdict. I love making these protein balls during the summer. It has a hint of carbs, lots of protein and lots of texture – thanks to the nuts and nibs. Since it has peanut butter, an added bonus is my hubby loves them.

Variations:

• You can toast the oats for some toasty flavor. I usually add the walnuts and nibs in the pan to give it dimension.
• If you have Tahini, you can substitute 1 Tbsp of Tahini to the Peanut Butter. Same reason: more depth of flavor. I have varied the proportion of Tahini to Peanut butter and made Tahini Balls instead – also good for that protein boost.
• You can also roll them in chocolate sprinkles. For tahini balls, I've used coconut or sesame seeds. They look like truffles and adds a bit of decadence.

Hope you enjoy!

Italian "Water" Cake with Orange Juice

The entire state of California has been on shelter-in-place the last week. Residents are recommended to only get out of the house for essential needs: food, medicine. Most people have been home cooking and rationing, so we have been only going out for groceries once a week.

What that means is that we have to be very creative with our recipes. I’ve been rationing my stash of soy creamer because I don’t want to go to the store. If I don’t have an ingredient, I would substitute or omit.

Hence this water cake…

In all honesty, I made this cake before the shelter-in-place. I have been meaning to make a second version of this cake because folks liked my first version. It just ended up too doughy and heavier than I expected. Now, I have an opportunity to make it a second time and use up the items in my pantry.

For the second version, I decided to use a bit of almond flour for some texture (and protein). I just started using almond flour. I also cut down on sugar a bit.

Here's what I have... hope you enjoy.

Italian "Water" Cake with Orange Juice
Based on Italian Water Cake no eggs, no milk, no butter

Ingredients

• 12 oz orange juice (about a small container)
• 2 ½ cups Italian type 00 flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 2/3 cup + 1 TBSP white sugar
• 1/3 cup of canola oil
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Sift the flours, sugar, baking powder together into a large bowl. Sift, sift, sift – As my friend Jen said, one can never sift too much.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the oil and orange juice and mix well. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the water and oil and mix it all.
4. When the oven is hot, pour the mixture into a greased cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Note: Test the cake with a toothpick in the center before removing it from the oven.
5. If you like, you can dust the cake with powdered sugar or top it with yogurt and jam.

Verdict

I love this recipe because it does not use a lot of ingredients, which is perfect for a shelter-in-place. However, you do need 00 flour to make this work. I just happened to have some. Don’t use regular flour because the results will not be as good (according to the comments in the original recipe).

It does taste very good. It's not light like an angel food cake, but it's delicious. I am now thinking of a coffee-flavored cake, but I'm thinking that it would technically require milk - so its a work in progress.

Also, check out the original recipe. Mine did not vary from it that much, but I think its unique enough to share. I also converted some of the measurements to friendlier terms.

Let me know what you think.